Setting

Subjects

714 6th grade students.

Results

Adding items to reflect level (low, medium, high) of self efficacy for fruit and vegetable
intake achieved scale reliability and validity comparable to existing scales, but
the distribution of items across the latent variable did not improve. Selecting items
from among clusters of items at similar levels of difficulty along the latent variable
resulted in an abbreviated scale with psychometric characteristics comparable to the
full scale, except for reliability.

Conclusions

The abbreviated scale can reduce participant burden. Additional research is necessary
to generate items that better distribute across the latent variable. Additional items
may need to tap confidence in overcoming more diverse barriers to dietary intake.